conversations for the academically minded

Menu

The Friday Five: Today’s Dreamland

This week, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Across the nation, Americans contemplated both the great change and stagnation that has occurred over the past half century. In this week’s post, we look at articles that reflect the complexity of the contemporary context, within which the civil rights debates of previous decades intersect with new and emerging questions about freedom, equality and justice.

Zahra Baitie has a dream that one day Africans can walk the streets of Beijing without being a spectacle and asks: is it racist to be intrigued? @TeaLeafNation

Craig Cobb has a dream of white supremacists taking over his town in North Dakota, luckily not many share his dream @TheSpokesmanReview

Was Miley Cyrus’ highly debated VMA performance a commentary on sex and gender relations or just a maturing star trying to distance herself from Disney fantasy? @ The Atlantic

And while we’re on the spectacle of Cyrus’ performance, we also wanted to share Tressie McMillan Cottom’s insightful critique of Cyrus’ use of black bodies in her “white wonderland” @ tressiemc

Diversity in tech wasn’t at the forefront in 1963, but it is today. Entrepreneurs, Mitch Kapor and Frieda Kapor Klein, discuss the role of hidden bias and stereotyping in and near Silicon Valley @ Kapor Center

What keeps you dreaming or causes you sleepless nights? Let us know in the comments!